A decade of disorientation: The biggest leadership challenge of the future
Associate Professor Sandra Peter
Over 70 Australian and global leaders and executives contributed to a major research report about the challenges facing leaders in the immediate future.
The 2025 Skills Horizon report identifies the skills leaders should develop to meet and lead through those challenges. It is the first report in an annual series published by Sydney Executive Plus, an executive and leadership development initiative from the University of Sydney Business School.
Associate Professor Sandra Peter, co-director of Sydney Executive Plus said: “Leaders can no longer rely on a stable business environment. Instead, they will need to build the capability to deal with a messy and complex world.
“No matter the industry or level of seniority, the next 10 years will be the most disorienting in a leader’s career. They could also become the most impactful.
As we enter this decade of disorientation, business leaders have five messy shifts to worry about: values, technology, accountability, trust, and energy.
Professor Kai Riemer
Professor Kai Riemer, co-director of Sydney Executive Plus, said that the research made clear that leaders can navigate these changes through a flexible lifelong learning strategy.
“There are four areas of skills convergence leaders will need to master: they need to fluently speak the language of tech; they need to solve problems of scale; they need to work across differences in the workplace; and they need to think through complexity.”
“The right skills mix can help a leader face and move through what’s to come with clarity and confidence,” said Professor Riemer.
The 2025 Skills Horizon report explores 36 skills overall, which range from the urgent to the unexpected.
Clear concerns among the leaders who participated in the report included geopolitics, energy transition, and rapidly changing technology like artificial intelligence. But surprising skills also emerged as relevant to the future, such as humanities thinking and quantum fluency.
Interviews were conducted with leaders across business, government, academia, defence, culture and the arts, including former prime ministers, global and Australian CEOs, army generals, government secretaries, head chefs, and NGO and charity leaders.
The report is designed to be a dynamic guide for business leaders to use for skills assessment and as a catalyst for innovation, growth and futureproofing. For more information or to download a full copy, visit plus.sydney.edu.au/horizon.